Cristano Ronaldo

Early Life

      Cristano Ronaldo was born on February 5th 1985 in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. He was the youngest of four. His father was José Dinis Aveiro and his mom was Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro both of them worked his mom as a cook and his dad as a gardener. He has an older brother Hugo and two older sisters Elma and Liliana Cátia. He had a hard childhood he lived in poverty having a small tin roof hut and had to share a room with his brother and sisters.

      Ronaldo started soccer with the help of his dad. When Ronaldo was 8 his dad was equipment manager for Andorinha and his dad pushed him to play for the team. Two years later Ronaldo would sign to play with a local team called Nacional. Ronaldo would contribute a lot to the team and they would win a championship which allowed him to be seen by Sporting CP (also known as Sporting Lisbon) and would get three days to convince Sporting CP to sign him. Ronaldo would show off his greatness and would sign with them.

      Ronaldo would play with Sporting CP for five years and would catch the eye of many major European clubs and would even play for Portugal's U15 (Under 15) National Team in 2001. In 2003 Sporting CP would defeat Manchester United 3-1 in a friendly match which left Manchester players astonished by Ronaldo's talent and they urged Alex Fergeson to sign him.

Manchester United (Move to England)

     Ronaldo signed with Manchester United in 2003 for £12.24 million which is roughly $17.44 million and was give the number seven jersey. Ronaldo's first match with Manchester United was against Bolton Wanderers where he was subbed in and would play for 60 minutes. He started to fit in with Manchester United and would score his first goal for them on November 1st off a free kick against Portsmouth. Once he got the first many more would come scoring many goals in 2004 to finish off the season. On his last game of the 2003-2004 regular seasons he scored the first goal to make it 1-0 against Aston Villa and would also get his first red card of his career. His first season with Manchester United ended in fireworks he scored the first goal in the FA Cup Final which ended 3-0.

      His second season with Manchester United was the season where he started to develop his game scoring in several games and twice against Arsenal that ended 4-2. His arguably best goal of the season was against Fulham. This was the last game of the regular season and he would score it from 25 yards out for the game winner and the only goal of the game. He would take his team to the FA cup Final once again but would lose to Arsenal in penalties after a scoreless 120 minutes.     

    The 2005-2006 season started off with a contract signing where Ronaldo would sign a contract that extended his stay with Manchester United until 2010. Ronaldo would get into trouble this season getting a one month suspension for flipping off Benfica fans. However he would recover from his mistake and score three braces (two goals in one game) and would win his second FA Cup final.

    In 2006 Ronaldo started to have trouble with teammates. Ruud van Nistelrooy one of his teammates didn't like how Ronaldo showboated and started to show his hatred towards him. Nistrelrooy would even go as far as mentioning his dad which just passed away in 2005 from an alcoholism liver disease. Even more would problems would come up with one of his closer teammates Wayne Rooney who would beat him for the PFA (Professional Footballers' Association) Young Player of the Year award. However Manchester United would get PFA Premier League Team of the Year award. The biggest problem with Rooney was during the FIFA Cup Quarter Finals where it was England vs. Portugal. His friends became rivals and Ronaldo used his knowledge of Rooney to get under his skin. He would influence Rooney to make a mistake and then Ronaldo can to convince the ref to send Rooney off with a red card. After Rooney was given the red card Ronaldo turned and winked at the Portugal bench. England would lose that game and the English fans blamed Ronaldo for their FIFA Cup lost.

     After the FIFA Cup Ronaldo returned to a different atmosphere at Manchester United instead of the fans cheering for him everyone started to hate and boo him. Ronaldo wanted to leave Manchester and play for Madrid hoping to leave the negativity, but he was still under contract. Ronaldo got booed everywhere he went but somehow he improved his skills and silenced the crowds with amazing goals and equalizers. He would score more than 20 goals this season and Manchester United would win the league title in the 2006-2007 season. The question is how did Ronaldo overcome this negativity? Ronaldo received special one-on-one training with the coach which they worked on footwork, communication with his teammates, and the ability to call for the ball and score from almost anywhere. These skills paid off for the first time in a long time fans stood up and clapped when Ronaldo was subbed off the field.

     Ronaldo fought all the odds winning the Barclays Player of the Month award in November and December. He would also score three consecutive braces at the end of December. He continued his success through 2007 where he was scoring equalizers and game winners to put Manchester United on top of the leader boards. It came to a sudden stop when Ronaldo was given a red card for reckless tackling, however he would return for the rest of the season and keep Manchester United on top. Ronaldo would receive many awards for that season he received PFA Players' Player of the Year, PFA Young Player of the Year awards, PFA Fans' Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year, and would be one of the eight Manchester players to be a part of the FWA Footballer of the Year.

     Rumors about Ronaldo sprung up after the season about him signing with Real Madrid. Madrid was offering €80 million roughly $87.1 million for Ronaldo, but Manchester’s manager was unwilling to sell. Ronaldo was happy playing with them and his fans and teammates were happy to keep him.

     The 2007-2008 season started off with Ronaldo head butting a player and getting suspended for three games. Even though it started a disaster Ronaldo was nominated for the Ballon d'Or and FIFA Player of the World award. He would score his fire hat-trick (three goals in a single game) against Newcastle United. Then on March 19th, 2008 he would be the captain for the first time and would win against Bolton. Ronaldo would score against Chelsea in the Champion League Final and Manchester would win the game in penalties. He was named UEFA Fans' Man of the Match. He would score 31 goals in the premier league and 42 goals in all competition. He would win Premier League Golden Boot, Premier League Player of the Season, PFA Players' Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year awards, PFA Team of the Year, and European Golden Shoe. Ronaldo was also given the title of best forward and player of the tournament.

     The 2008-2009 season didn't start off to hot either Ronaldo went through ankle surgery and would be out for three months. Then later we would receive a second yellow card (two yellows equal a red) for a hand ball receiving his third red card and missing a few more games. Somehow through injury and red cards he was able to win the Ballon d'Or, the FIFA World Player of the Year awards, PFA Team of the Year, and FIFA Puskás Award.

     Ronaldo would end his career with Manchester United that year. They sold Ronaldo to Real Madrid for £80 million roughly $114 million.

Biography